James W. Head

Jamie is the Global Co-Head of Energy and Infrastructure. He also leads the firm’s Agency Finance Practice and is a key member of the Public-Private Partnerships and Infrastructure Team.

Described by clients to Chambers as “excellent,” and “thorough and honest” and “very creative,” he has been named a “Leader in Projects” by Chambers USA and Chambers Global, “Recommended for Project Finance” by Legal 500, a “Rising Star” by Law360, a “Deal Maker of the Year” by Finance Monthly, and a “Leading Lawyer” by IFLR1000.

"Jamie is the lawyer you want to have representing you on deals. He is highly thoughtful on complex structuring and drafting matters, but also a highly effective negotiator." – Chambers USA 2024

"Jamie is fantastic. He has a great presentation style and is able to distill very complex topics into easily digestible talking points." – Chambers USA 2024

Formerly of Hunton’s London office, Jamie has extensive global experience and is currently representing many of the world’s leading energy and infrastructure players — spanning from the United States government to the World Bank to leading lenders and investors in New York and London. Supplementary to his previous service as a JAG Officer in the US Navy and Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of an American retail company, Jamie has more than thirteen years of experience advising on some of the most difficult and innovative large-scale energy and infrastructure projects in the world, including in the United States, Argentina, Belize, Ecuador, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Burundi, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Croatia, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia, Ukraine, Turkey, Cambodia, Mongolia, Oman, and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

During his time in the Navy, Jamie prosecuted members of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Mahdi Army before the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, oversaw the Joint Transition Office mission to inform the Iraqi Cabinet of evidence against 15,000 detainees, and clerked for the Court of Military Commissions Review in Washington, D.C., hearing appeals of unlawful belligerents tried by military commission in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was also honored to serve our Marines and Sailors as a legal advocate and defense attorney in courts martial and on appeal before the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Military Review.

• Leading the firm’s representation of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) on multiple investments, including (i) the provision of political risk insurance to facilitate sovereign-debt-for-nature swaps, including the seminal $364 million Blue Bond for Ocean Conservation in Belize, the largest-in-history $656 million Galápagos marine conservation-linked bond, and the first-in-Africa $500 million Gabon Blue Bond, (ii) a $795 million loan to a helium and gas liquefaction facility in South Africa, (iii) multiple oil and gas projects in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, including a $250 million loan to a gas processing facility and a $50 million loan to an oil production facility, (iv) a $50 million loan to a 150-bed hospital and medical training facility P3 in Oman, (v) a $50 million trade facilitation program in Ukraine in conjunction with the International Finance Corporation, and (vi) a $45 million loan to a warehouse operations project in Argentina. 

• Market leading experience in University Utility System P3s, including (i) representation of the University of Louisville on its ongoing procurement of a 50-year design, build, finance, operate maintain (DBFOM) concession and monetization of its central utility plant and steam distributions system, (ii) representation of the winning consortium, Sacyr Plenary Utility Partners Idaho LLC, on the 50-year design, build, finance, operate, maintain concession of the University of Idaho Utility System, which included a $225 million up-front payment to the University following a competitive procurement, (iii) and other representations of short-listed bidders for utility concessions at the University of Iowa and the University of Florida, including several of the world’s leading energy and infrastructure companies.

• Advised Purple Line Transit Constructors, the DB Contractor on the Purple Line P3 Project, on the recent unwind of the design-build contract for the 16-mile light rail line extending from Bethesda in Montgomery County to New Carrollton in Prince George's County, Maryland, including in negotiations with the sponsors, the Maryland Department of Transportation, PABs bondholders, and TIFIA.

• Advised Altria Group Inc. in its long-term virtual power purchase agreement with a NextEra wind generator in Haskell and Throckmorton Counties, Texas, which is intended to address the emissions from 100 percent of Altria’s annual purchased electricity demand across all U.S. facilities.

• Advised the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation in connection with the $257.2 million acquisition from Norfolk Southern Corporation of approximately 28 miles of NS-owned “V-line” right-of-way, including existing tracks from Christiansburg in southwest Virginia’s New River Valley to the Salem Crossovers. This acquisition was a key part of Virginia’s Western Rail Initiative, which will expand passenger rail service from Washington, DC to Roanoke, Va. and to the New River Valley.

• Counsel to the developer Navy Hill Development Corporation in a $1.8 billion urban redevelopment project in Richmond, Virginia, which includes a $250 million sports and entertainment arena funded by the City of Richmond through tax increment financing bonds.

• Advised a leading transportation infrastructure fund on its bid to acquire a long-term concession and lease of the parking system at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona.

• Advised a leading infrastructure fund on a long-haul fiber-optic project in the United States.

• Advised the Virginia Department of Transportation on the DBFOM procurement of the $2.1 billion I-66 HOT Lanes Project in Northern Virginia, the largest P3 tendered to date by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

• Advised the sponsor on the Michigan Freeway Lighting Project, the groundbreaking project with the Michigan Department of Transportation that used a P3 to upgrade and maintain freeway lights in Detroit’s tri-county area.

• Advised the government of the Republic of Srpska, Bosnia, and Herzegovina in the development of an approximately €300 million, 42-kilometer motorway PPP project between Banja Luka and Prijedor in northwest Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• Advised the Federal Government of Nigeria and Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading PLC (NBET) in connection with all aspects of:

  • the restructuring and privatization of Nigeria’s electricity sector,

  • the groundbreaking $1.2 billion Azura-Edo independent power project,

  • over 2,000 MW of thermal independent power projects,

  • the procurement of long term PPAs in relation to PV solar projects with an aggregate capacity of 1,125 MW and an estimated capital cost of $1.76 billion,

  • the development of hydroelectric projects, and

  • the procurement of long term PPAs in relation to a number of wind farms with an aggregate capacity of 400 MW.

• Advised the International Finance Corporation and the Republic of Ghana in connection with introduction of private sector participation into the Electricity Company of Ghana, one of the largest distribution utilities in Sub-Saharan Africa, through a 20 year concession.

• Advised multiple solar project development companies in the development, financing, and acquisition of solar projects around the United States.

• Advised the Government of Kosovo in relation to the renovation and development of approximately 1,200 MW of lignite-fired combined heat and power plants in Pristina.

• Advised Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP), the national electricity company of the Republic of Croatia, on an international tender for the design, engineering, financing, construction, operation, and maintenance of a new €1.4 billion, 500 MW coal-fired power plant at Plomin in Istria, Croatia.

• Advised the Government of Uganda on the development and operation of the Bujagali hydroelectric facility located on the River Nile. The project constitutes the largest-ever private sector investment in the region and was awarded Project Finance magazine’s “African Power Deal of the Year.”

• Advised Energies de Grands Lacs and the Governments of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda on the development of the 145 MW Ruzizi III Regional Hydroelectric Dam, which will be located on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo and will sell capacity and energy to the utilities of Burundi, Rwanda, and the DRC.

• Named a “Leading Lawyer” in Project Development and Project Finance, Africa (2018) and United States (2024), IFLR1000
• Recognized as a Leader in Projects: PPP, USA-Nationwide, Chambers USA, 2023-2024

• Recognized as a Leader in Projects – PPP, USA-Nationwide, Chambers Global, 2024

• Recommended for Project Finance, Legal 500 United States, 2023
• Named a “Rising Star,” Law360, 2019
• Named a “Deal Maker of the Year,” Finance Monthly, 2018

• Chairman of the Advisory Board, The Salvation Army of Central Virginia
• Member, American Bar Association

• Member, Virginia Bar Association 

• Former Member, Virginia Board for Professional and Occupational Regulation
• Former President, Tredegar Society, American Civil War Museum
• Former Fellow, Royal Geographical Society
• Former Member, Chatham House